Lan Fozu, Worthy of Admiration

"We're here. This is the place."

The Demon Empress slowly landed and set Su Ming and Lan Fozu down on the ground, one on each side.

"The disturbance caused by the sacrifice later will absolutely not be noticed by anyone or any soul beast."

As he listened to the Demon Empress's confident words, Su Ming surveyed the entire underground cavern.

He sighed in admiration. "Nature truly is a master craftsman. To think it created such a magnificent and secure cavern beneath the water."

"Enough nonsense. Hurry up and begin the sacrifice," the Demon Empress interrupted Su Ming's musings.

She had no interest in appreciating the scenery here.

She had chosen this place solely because it was safe enough.

Mother... As she listened to her mother's words, Lan Fozu was naturally reluctant to part with her.

However, she knew she had to be strong now and could not cry.

Hearing the Demon Empress urging them on, Su Ming took the opportunity to say, "Your Majesty Demon Empress, before the sacrifice begins, I have one more favor to ask of you."

"Speak." The Demon Empress crossed her arms and uttered a single word.

"My soul power is already at level eighteen. Once the sacrifice is complete, I will definitely advance to level twenty."

"At that point, my first martial soul, Kyogre, will naturally need a suitable soul ring."

"So I'll have to trouble Your Majesty Demon Empress a little in this matter."

Having said that, Su Ming looked expectantly at the Demon Empress.

The Demon Empress answered succinctly, "Species. Age."

To her, it was merely a trivial matter, no more than lifting a hand.

As for helping a human soul master hunt soul beasts—would she feel guilty about that?

What a joke. Even she herself had no idea how many marine creatures she had devoured.

As long as they were dealt with normally rather than cruelly tortured, it was simply the law of the jungle.

"Mirror-Shadow Jellyfish, at least two thousand years old," Su Ming immediately stated his chosen target.

"You certainly know how to choose." The Demon Empress glanced at Su Ming.

What impressed her was not the soul beast's age, but its species.

The Mirror-Shadow Jellyfish was no ordinary sea soul beast.

As for Su Ming absorbing a thousand-year soul ring as his second soul ring, the Demon Empress saw nothing surprising about it.

As the inheritor of three gods, even if Su Ming suddenly gained a million-year soul ring one day, the Demon Empress would not be surprised.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Demon Empress." Su Ming spoke with a grin.

With the strength of his body now, absorbing a thousand-year soul ring would naturally be effortless.

For soul masters, the importance of one's cultivation speed in the early stages was absolutely greater than the age of one's early soul rings.

After all, in this era, the level a soul master could reach before the age of twenty largely determined the upper limit of that person's lifelong cultivation.

To aspire to become a Title Douluo, one had to at least reach the cultivation of a Soul King before turning twenty.

This could be seen from the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament, held every five years.

Every tournament was an opportunity for geniuses from all factions to display their talents.

Nearly all of them reached Soul King before the age of twenty. Soul Emperors were not unheard of either, and some had even reached the level of High-Rank Soul Emperor.

Therefore, for the overwhelming majority of soul masters, deliberately holding back at a bottleneck and refusing to absorb soul rings just to raise their limits for the sake of a little more soul ring age in the early stages—

Was simply putting the cart before the horse and damaging their own futures.

After all, how great could the difference between a hundred-year and thousand-year soul ring in the early stages really be?

And if they truly wanted to increase their soul ring ages, those geniuses from major factions would usually make their fourth soul ring reach the ten-thousand-year level.

That was because a ten-thousand-year soul ring brought tremendous improvements and benefited a soul master's future.

It was not worth wasting precious cultivation time on the first and second soul rings.

However, none of this was something Su Ming needed to worry about.

Because he had been reincarnated into this world, his soul had always far surpassed that of ordinary people.

On top of that, he possessed the Three Divine Martial Souls, and the enhancements they gave him were undoubtedly unparalleled.

Therefore, Su Ming did not need to do anything special to absorb soul rings beyond their age limits.

Of course, he still could not skip the whale gelatin and pills he was supposed to consume.

"Whoosh..." The Demon Empress vanished from where she stood.

Clearly, she had gone to capture a suitable Mirror-Shadow Jellyfish for Su Ming.

At that moment, only Su Ming and Lan Fozu remained in the underground cavern.

This child really is innocent.

Watching Lan Fozu occasionally avert her gaze in a futile attempt to hide the fact that she had been looking at him, Su Ming found her rather adorable.

Many soul beasts were far more innocent than humans.

Even among certain inherently evil races, there could be unusual soul beasts that were kind by nature.

For example, Lan Fozu before him—and the Demon Empress of the past.

If Su Ming had not known Lan Fozu's true form, who would have imagined that this innocent and adorable six-year-old girl was a hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form?

In terms of soul beast age, she was at least ten thousand years old.

After following her mother while fleeing the pursuit of countless clans, wandering everywhere, and witnessing her mother's drastic change in temperament as she devoured countless living beings—

The fact that she could still preserve her true heart was the most precious quality Lan Fozu possessed.

Most importantly, she stood firm in her convictions.

After learning that Tang Wulin was the child of her father's killer, Lan Fozu completely gave up on that notion.

And even while standing on the side of evil, she had still refused to go along with it.

Compared to a certain soul beast co-ruler who became lovesick and directly defected to the enemy, the contrast could not have been clearer.

It was precisely because of this that Su Ming had been willing to agree to the Demon Empress's request and keep Lan Fozu, who had transformed into human form and begun cultivating anew, by his side.

"Hello, Lan Fozu. Let me introduce myself. My name is Su Ming." Su Ming walked directly toward Lan Fozu.

After secretly glimpsing Su Ming approaching her, Lan Fozu became a little shy and hurriedly stared straight ahead, pretending she had never looked at him.

Yet this self-deceiving action, just like before, only made her seem even cuter.

Only after Su Ming truly arrived before her did Lan Fozu lower her head shyly and murmur in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz:

"Hello, Su Ming."

"Thank you for seeing my name from the future. I really like this name..."

Lan Fozu was undoubtedly full of curiosity about Su Ming.

But she was clearly shy right now. Seeing Su Ming from so close up, the many questions she had wanted to ask suddenly would not come out.

Seeing this, Su Ming began guiding Lan Fozu through the conversation.

In his view, Lan Fozu's behavior was simply the normal reaction of someone seeing a human for the first time—especially such an unusual human.

With a little guidance, she would return to normal.